In 2000, director Christopher Nolan blew our minds with [[[Memento]]], a story that uses the affliction of anterograde amnesia to play with time and traditional storytelling notions. His sure-handed direction, coupled with Guy Pearce’s compelling performance made the movie grab our attention, hold on to it for nearly two hours, and leave us exhausted. It’s critical and commercial success led to Nolan being offered other films and he has taken every advantage of the opportunity. His work on the [[[Batman]]] franchise has been admirable while [[[The Prestige]]] proved he can tell a more traditional story while the Oscar-nominated [[[Inception]]] once more played with our perceptions of reality.

Lionsgate has released Memento on Blu-ray disc and it looks pretty amazing in high definition and is a worth a second look. Nolan’s brother Jonathan wrote “Memento Mori” as a prose piece before Christopher adapted it as a screenplay. Both tell the story of Leonard, whose troubles began when his wife (Jorja Fox) was murdered. As he tries to determine who killed his spouse, his memory issues complicate his waking hour. Anything he experiences is forgotten within fifteen minutes, giving him a narrow window to ensure he puts the complicated puzzle of his life together. He takes Polaroid pictures, writes in his journal, and fills scraps with detail that he hopes will make sense later. The parallel storylines, with one told in reverse (beginning during the wonderful title sequence), challenges the audience to pay attention to every action, every line of dialogue, and try to see the world through Leonard’s tortured eyes.

He relies on note-taking, covering his body in elegant commentary that literally marks him for life. Without a short-term memory to rely on, Leonard’s steps are hampered with everyone he encounters a potential killer. As a result, one of his few friends Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) winds up a victim of misplaced vengeance with Leonard a hapless bullet aimed by the questionable waitress Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss). Who is at fault, who is the real killer? Leonard struggles to figure it out as the audience rushes to keep up with the twisting storyline.

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Because… well, when I think Klingon Warrior, I immediately think, “Of course, that’s just the role for Stephen Fry.”

Via The New Adventures of Stephen Fry. Hat tip to Allyn Gibson.

Director Tony Scott can always be counted on for visually compelling movies with razor-thin characters. His most recent offering, [[[Unstoppable]]], is now out on DVD from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and makes for a mindless viewing.

The film is based on a true story but was amplified beyond recognition as two train men risk their lives to stop a runaway train under full power before it could destroy lives and property with its toxic cargo. Newcomer Will Colson (Chris Pine, showing more range than his Jim Kirk) is paired with the grizzled veteran Frank Barnes (Denzel Washington, playing the same everyman he played in the remake of [[[Pelham 1-2-3]]]) as they take 1206 out to collect freight cars. At much the same time, careless workmen at a rail yard allow a freight train to get away from them and without the air brakes attached, it becomes a “half-mile long missile” heading into rural Pennsylvania.

Obviously, it’s an action movie so the tension is nicely ratcheted up with fast cuts between the two trainmen, the runaway, the operations center, and the general public. Scott handles this well so you’re deep into the movie before you realize the characters aren’t particularly deep. Colson has family ties to the business, earning him contempt from the veterans, plus is estranged from his wife and son, which preoccupies him. Barnes has seen it all before and knows more than the executive and shows off his know-how time and again, devoting everything to the task at hand despite knowing he is being forced into early retirement in a mere three weeks. Watching them come together to bond and save the day should have been a more rewarding experience.

Rosario Dawson as the train controller is the best supporting player in the film and does a good job with a thankless part.  Everyone else arrived from central casting so the higher-ups and CEO are all clichés, offering nothing diverting to the overall story.

The cookie-cutter feel to the story surfaces now and then but Scott and his editor Chris Lebenzon, keep things briskly moving.

The Blu-ray transferred nicely so looks crisp with good sound. The movie is accompanied by a dry audio commentary from Scott or you could listen to “Tracking the Story” a series of tape recorded conversations between Scott and screenwriter Mark Bomback. The latter should have been more revealing and interesting.

Then there’s “The Fastest Track: Unleashing ‘Unstoppable'”, a 29:41 featurette on the film’s complicated production. Unfortunately, by now there should have been some detail on the true events that launched this jet-fueled version but no one seems interested in reality. “Derailed: Anatomy of a Scene” (10:01) shows how the train derailment moment was prepped and filmed, proving that some things look better in real life than a CGI-generated version. Similarly, “Hanging off the Train: Stunt Work” (14:25) shows how hazardous it can be for the true action heroes. Less interesting is “On the Rails with the Director and Cast” (13:25) as Scott, Washington, Pine, and Dawson talk briefly about making the film.

Entertaining with easy-going performances, this is worth a look.

I wanted to show off some of the other cool Minimates that Diamond Comics Distributors had at their booth, but as is often the case with trade shows, photos were not permitted yet.

Something of note at JAKKS Pacific was a considerable line of goodies from the Dreamworks movie, “Real Steel.”

A 5″ line of figures will have interchangeable limbs and light up heads & bodies for customization. A larger 7.5″ line will have signature moves from the movie, but there’s gonna be something even more dear to the hearts of a lot of geeks – a variation (and a necessary one at that) on the childhood favorite, “Rock’em Sock’em Robots” (note to younger readers: ask your folks about this. It’s really cool. trust me).

DC Direct had some very well made busts & figures from the upcoming “Green Lantern” movie:

But the thing I was most looking forward to was goodies to “Batman: Arkham City,” the video game sequel to the 2009 hit game “Batman: Arkham Asylum.” So far, only one figure had been shown off, and it’s a doozy.

Harley Quinn keeps getting nuttier and nuttier. And that’s a good thing.

Mezco Toyz showed off a 6″ Scott Pilgrim figure from the movie and fan fave graphic novel series. Hopefully more figures will be coming.

I love that “Little Big Planet” brings a lot of user-creativity into video games, and to celebrate that, Mezco showed off their second wave of “Little Big Planet” action figures.

McFarlane Toys never fails to impress, and they had a couple of great highlights including this guy

Now Bungie may have left Microsoft, but that does not mean that “Halo” is dead. Far from it. More video games are being planned, and one can only hope that a movie might actually happen.

McFarlane Toys also had shown off figures from “The Walking Dead.” Take a look at these two guys.

Now note that “Officer Rick Grimes” doesn’t look like Andrew Lincoln, the actor who portrays him in the AMC TV series. There’s a reason for that. McFarlane Toys’ goodies for “The Walking Dead” is both for the Robert Kirkman graphic novel series as well as for the AMC TV series. This can create some issues as one of the figures in the first wave “may” actually appear in the 2nd season of the TV series (“Daryl Dixon,” everybody’s favorite crossbow-wielding hillbilly, will be in the second wave of action figures).

That’s it for now. In the third part, I’ll talk about some of the stuff I was unable to see as well as what I consider to be the coolest toy at Toy Fair 2011.